Household and hotel bathrooms, hospital rooms and bathrooms, and commercial and public washrooms and restrooms conventionally provide recessed sinks formed into, or resting upon, a surrounding counter top. Both the sink and the surrounding counter top are employable by users for their personal hygienic needs. For example home, hotel, hospital, and other publicly-provided sinks are normally employed for hand and face washing, brushing one's teeth and in some cases, even laundering personal items like underwear and other clothing items.
Such sink and counter arrangements conventionally include sinks equipped with overhead faucets, which may be free-standing and built into the counter top as a unitary structure, or engaged with the sink itself which is supported by a surrounding counter top. Often splash guards are provided against the wall-supporting the counter to protect the wall surfaces from moisture.
Because of the general nature of use of sinks, and the free-flowing of water concurrently with the use of soap and other hygienic items, it is common to have the counter top splashed with liquid. Such may be water or mixtures of water and soap, or other chemicals such as hair coloring and the like. While porcelain or metallic sinks are not easily stained due to the nature of those materials, surrounding counters may be formed of plastic, stone, wood or mixtures of materials which are potentially easily discolored by splashed or otherwise projected water or liquids employed by the user for hygiene or other uses.
Be it a home sink, a hotel or hospital room sink, or a public-available sink, invariably over time and with enough users, the counter top surrounding the sink will become marked or stained by flying liquids and other materials. Frequently, such liquids may include for example, soap, hard water, nail polish, shampoo including water, body creams, toothpaste, gargle liquids, hair color, hygienic washes, and other liquids employed by users when positioned at a sink.
In the past, while a paper or cloth towel, when employed by a user concerned with overspray, may be partially beneficial in the wiping of splashed liquids from the open area surrounding the sink, the unprotected nature of the surfaces, and human nature, generally equate to many stains being imparted to surfaces surrounding the sink over time. Such staining may be exacerbated in publicly-used sinks, and while such staining may be somewhat lessened in a hotel or hospital room, such still occurs as a general rule. Further, while splashing occurs more frequently with younger users, the nature of the damage done by splashing increases with older sink users due to the nature of the liquids being used in proximity to the sink. Hair coloring, nail polish, and differing cosmetics can easily cause permanent staining in surfaces, especially expensive surfaces such as granite or marble.
An additional concern to subsequent users of hotel, hospital, and publicly-available sinks and countertops is that of the potential for encountering pathogens and contact with other undesirable materials and residue deposited by the use of the sink are by previous users. In hotels and in hospital, while housekeeping attempts to clean such surfaces, it is well known that disease causing pathogens, and other less than hygienic materials and fluid residues can remain. Contact with such can be unknowing by the subsequent user who lays their toothbrush on an infected countertop, or places their hand on the newly wet countertop surface and suffers a transfer of a pathogen or other unsanitary material.
However to date, prior art has not provided a solution to the problem of splashing and overspray by sink users and the damage thereby caused. Neither has a solution been provided for the hygienic dilemma of subsequent users of sinks and counters such as in hotels or in a hospitals. While the use of a conventional cloth towel is sometimes a partial solution for users, such towels do not fair well themselves from liquid staining on many occasions. Further, towels being rectangular do not easily cover the curved areas of sink-surrounding counters and splash guards and can leave the user exposed to whatever lurks on the countertop surface. Further most fabric materials tend to easily slide when placed on smooth surrounding areas and lack a liquid barrier and thus underlying pathogens or residue can communicate through the towel when it becomes wet. Paper towels have also been a common item for liquid splashing protection, however paper towels are also rectangular as well as being small in size, and thus do not provide good coverage.
As such there is an unmet need for a sink-surrounding protection device which will protect the surrounding surfaces from liquids being employed by a user, and will protect subsequent users of such sink surrounding areas from that which might be left from previous users thereon. Such a device should be modular in nature and easy to use and easily conform to the various shapes and curves and sizes of differing sink and counter configurations. Such a device should also be configured such that it stays in position once placed by the user. Still further, such a device should be configurable to be employed by users for wearing to protect users and their clothing during personal hygiene or stylist or cosmetic procedures.
As a notation those skilled in the art should appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other sink surrounding liquid protection devices, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device and method. It is important, therefore, that the suggested construction and operation and objects and claims of the sink surrounding apparatus and method herein be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology as would occur to those in the art, insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Further, the forgoing examples of background and state of the art and limitations related therewith, are intended to be illustrative of the known and general state of the art and not exclusive, and they should not be taken to imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various limitations of the related art are well known, or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.